Franz Holas

Franz Holas was born the second son of farmers Alois and Maria Holas in Koetitz in Bohemia [today: Kojetice na Moravě in the Czech Republic]. In 1910, the family moved to Puch near Waidhofen an der Thaya. He lived in Puch between 1910 and 1934. He attended elementary school there and then became a farmer. In 1934, he moves to Ziernreith an der Thaya near Unterpertholz, where he buys a farm. During this time, he marries Franziska Hnizdil, who, like him, is a Czechoslovakian citizen.

A devout and practising Catholic, Franz Holas is active in the Reichsbund für Jungend und Sport and other Catholic associations. In addition, as a Czech citizen, he often visited the Czech Republic and was very critical of National Socialism.

On March 12, 1938, he witnessed the downfall of Austria with the invasion of Austria by the German Wehrmacht. On August 20, 1938, Franz Holas, his wife and farmhand Gottfried Breit were arrested by the Gestapo and taken to prison in Gmünd. Franziska Holas and Gottfried Breit were released a few days later, but Franz Holas remained in custody. He is never given a reason. Witnesses later say that he appeared to be particularly pro-Czech and Catholic in the town. At the same time, he publicly rejected National Socialism. This was a thorn in the side of local National Socialists.

On November 10, 1938, Franz Holas fled from prison across the border into the Czechoslovak Republic and hid with relatives of his wife Franziska in the village of Lipnik. After the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia, he was arrested again on June 20, 1939 and taken to Brno. On July 1, 1939, the Gestapo transferred him to a prison in Vienna, where he was released on January 11, 1940.

Franz Holas was arrested again by the Gestapo on February 11, 1942 and deported to the Flossenbürg concentration camp on September 1, 1942, where he was deployed as a quarry prisoner. In the meantime, his wife had to run the farm and look after their two children, born in 1939 and 1941, on her own.

Franz Holas, who contracted typhus and was severely mistreated in prison, remained in Flossenbürg concentration camp until the Allies liberated him and was released on April 30, 1945.

After his return, he ran his farm again. His entire family became Austrian citizens on July 13, 1946.

In 1974, Franz Holas sold or leased the farm and moved with his wife to a retirement home in Mank and later to Wallsee. His wife died in 1984 and Franz Holas died in a hospital in St. Pölten in 1987. He is laid to rest in Maria Anzbach.